Page:A Literary Courtship (1893).pdf/106

 "Nice girl! Irather guess! I never saw any one nicer. I say, Dick, neither of you fellows are going to carry her off, I hope."

"Not that I know of. But I should think there might have been plenty to try for it before now."

"Might have been. Only I don't believe any one ever screwed up his courage to ask her. I never did!"—this with a profound sigh.

"Is she so stiff?" I asked, ignoring the implied confidence.

"Not so much stiff as—" he paused for the word,—"let us say lucid. A fellow would have to be a bigger fool than I am to imagine that he had a chance."

"And you don't think she ever cared for anybody?"

"Well, of course I can't say. There hasn't been any one out here that she would be likely to fancy, and she was a mere chicken when she came. Why do you ask?"

"I was only trying to get some clue to her lucidity. It isn't so common."